The Puppet Master

A Woman Is Targeted For Execution. Who Pulled The Strings?

(CBS)  Retired FBI agent Larry Doss tracked Samuels to Monterrey, Mexico, a sprawling city about 200 miles south of the border. Asked why he went to Mexico, Samuels tells Roberts, "The reason I went was to eventually bring the three kids there. Legally or illegally, I was gonna do it."

In May 1998, Samuels picked up the phone and called his second wife Debbie Love, using a credit card. But Debbie had allowed Florida police to tap her phone.

The Mexican authorities, working with the FBI, were following Samuels' every move; as they closed in, he became more desperate. "A short time after the surveillance started, he realizes that he’s being followed…a high speed chase ensues, the car gets wrecked, and when they arrest him, and inventory his car, he has six kilograms of cocaine," says retired agent Doss.

While he acknowledges the report said he was found with six kilos of cocaine, Samuels says it's not true.

Ron Samuels would serve five years for narcotics trafficking in a Mexican prison, and his second wife, Debbie, would divorce him.

How does one man have such bad luck?

"Some would say I brought it on myself," Samuels tells Roberts. Asked if he did, Samuels says, "I must have been a very bad judge of two women."

But amazingly, even behind bars, Samuels found romance, when he had a chance encounter with Elizabeth Pastrana.

"I met him when I had a clothing business and I took clothes to the poor at the jail," she explains. Three years later, while Samuels was still in prison, Elizabeth became wife number three.

To this day, even in light of the charges against him, Elizabeth remains loyal to Samuels.

While Samuels was serving out his sentence in Mexico, John and Heather Grossman and her children moved to Arizona.

Not long after she was shot, Heather says John became increasingly abusive, both physically and emotionally. "I truly believe John couldn't handle it. And his anger and his rage just took over," she says.

In 2003, they divorced. Two years later, John died of a massive heart attack. "I forgive him. And I can understand it now, she says.

Asked if she forgives Ron Samuels, Heather says, "I forgive Ron Samuels, but I am afraid of him still."

Ron Samuels was extradited from Mexico and returned to Florida to stand trial in West Palm Beach on two counts of attempted murder. The co-conspirators, under the controversial grant of immunity, are all expected to testify about their role in the plot to kill Heather and John.

Heather makes the long trip across country from Arizona to Florida to testify. She needs to confront the man she believes has caused her so much pain.

It has been nine years since that fateful day. Defense lawyers Ned Reagan and Alex Brumfield plan to attack the credibility of the co-conspirators.

Asked if all these men are liars, Brumfield tells Roberts, "I would say yes."

"So your position is that this immunity deal gave them license to lie?" Roberts asks.

"That’s exactly it," Reagan argues.

[roscoezzz]

Ron Samuels really is a PUPPET MASTER. It seems that he wanted to control everything, his wives, kids, money and even what people think of him. He convinced his third wife of he is innocence. He even convinces himself that HE CHOSE THE WRONG WOMEN. But, those women loved him, bore his children etc.,
This sounds cliche, but real life and real people aren''t puppets. All because he lost control, didn''t want to be wrong, didn''t want to lose. He ruined so many lives. For 9 years he caused such grief and pain. He deserves to rot in that jail cell.
I admire his ex-wife who says she is happy after all that''s happened to her. She deserves so much more.

[carolcape]

I remember this matter being on before, but it is good to know this man will never get out of jail. He had everything including money. What happens to these people is unreal. Nobody wins in this case. What a tragedy for these people, especially the wife. How can so many people be so evil to do harm to one defenseless person. You think one of them would have had an ounce of goodness in them to turn him in before they killed this woman. God be with her to help her in the future.

[shoyt_2001]

Truth is in the actions, not the words. If the husband really wanted his ex-wife to be okay, then he would have paid child support rather than spending over half a million to deny it. Then he would have paid for her health care needs rather than fighting them.

He does not care about her, but says he does in the hope that people, including his children, will think well of him.

Idiot. He obviously failed in kindergarten when they teach you to play nice and tell the truth. He was probably selling spitballs in the classroom. His thinking has not moved on from those days.

[bickityboo]

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